The finished Product

This assignment has caused me alot of stress! There are just too many things that can go wrong. But I've learnt a few things that I will take to the next assignment. The list is by no means exhaustive:

* plug the mircophone into the correct socket of the Edirol.
* Arrange an interview MUCH EARLIER.
* Have 1 or 2 back-up interviews in place for when the first one inevitably pulls out, or changes the interview time at the last minute etc.
* I sound like I'm trying to hard when I try to hard - just try and relax when taping.
* Make sure I tee up an Edirol when I actually have an interview in place.

My main problem is that I didn't give myself enough time. I can easily blame fulltime work, but really it is about my lack of time management, in this case.

I'm not overly excited with the finished product, but I've learnt that I need to give myself more time to dig for a good story and edit the final product.

My voice

Of most benefit were the breathing exercises, although I dislike my voice at the best of times. It sounds deep and monotone, and I really can’t stand hearing it, to be honest. Fortunately, I have no plans to unleash my voice onto the general public as a radio newsperson. It's probably best for everyone.

The talent, Audacity

Getting the talent

One week before my assessment 2 radio interview is due for completion, and I decide to change my story. Well, not so much as a change of mind; more a case of a better story with a stronger news angle coming along.

A few weeks earlier I had tried unsuccessfully to contact a man from the ACT Scouts who was opening a new Arts facility for young people in the Tuggeranong Valley. I had heard about it through a church group. Days before my other interview was due to take place, the man from Scouts contacted me to say he was happy to talk to me about the facility.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that Canberra has a young population, and it also has the highest rate of youth crime in Australia, so a new community arts facility for young people run by the ACT Scouts seemed like a good path to a newsworthy story.

The Interview

The interview was quite stressful and uncomfortable for me, even though I kept saying to myself just do the best you can; we’ll, the best I can do with zero experience in broadcast journalism! I learnt that it is hard to maintain your composure and dignity when you are obsessively checking your equipment for malfunction; when you are trying intently to listen to the answers so you can ask an intelligent and probing question in your umm and ahh free “radio voice”; when you are trying to emphasise key words, but end up sounding like a kid whose voice has just broken.

That same night, I watched Tracey Grimshaw conduct a difficult and confronting interview on A Current Affair and discovered a new appreciation for live interview broadcasting.

Editing

As far as uni assessments go, I am quite enjoying the process of editing my radio interview. Although, I started to cull pauses and umms and ahhs without realising they provide important context in various parts of the interview. My talent may have been pausing for a reason, I thought to myself. I imagine it can become a bit like botox – once you start primping and culling and cropping, you can’t stop until it is completely unrecognisable from the original product. So I started again…

NB: Very happy that I can use Audacity from the comfort of my own laptop.

Pre-interview concerns - of which there are many

Pre-interview concerns - with Edirol, the editing process, and with the technology in general!

The technology

I'm more of a print media kind of girl, but I'm quite enjoying radio journalism. But the technology in BJ1 has me all stressed out. I've never been much of a first responder in an IT emergency. I mostly learn what I need to know through an exhaustive stressful process, particularly for the poor sucker who has to explain it to me. My laptop and I get along for the most part, even though we speak different languages and have diverse views on the meaning of ‘logic’ and ‘practical’.

Edirol

As a general rule, I know that any piece of technology that comes with two pages of instructions is going to give me a headache. However, I find the edirols fairly easy to negotiate. I haven’t interviewed my talent yet, but am playing around with my voice on the edirol so I can look/sound a little bit accomplished when I’m in the hot seat. For example, practicing cutting out the umms and aghs and, in my naivety, trying to sound like an ABC reporter. Then, I download onto Audacity and I can’t understand how to manipulate it! If only we had to do a high-pitched, quick tempo interview in reverse English, then I’d be fine. Note to self: Must develop the voice box of Elmer Fudd so no-one will be the wiser…

The editing process

Resistance is futile, but so enticing. As is throwing my computer out the window. I have never been so frustrated with information technology as I have become today. How is this Audacity audio equipment so technical and complicated? Any why can’t I be of the Y Generation and/or a computer passionista to figure it out? I desperately need an instruction booklet, or a USEFUL help manual, other than that American ‘Audacity Guy’, who I found through Google. He is of no help. I need practical help, like “if you need to do this, you should perhaps use this tool, or this tool”. I want to be able to edit my radio interview to within an inch of perfection (pending my hideous radio voice) but I don’t know how to! I will need to contact the audio guys at UC on Monday. They know stuff.

Researching for Assign No. 2

Researching my topic for assignment 2 – what have I learnt?

I was going to do a story on a new soup kitchen starting up in Kambah. Then I thought about the lack of car parking in the Woden Town Centre. Then I happened upon a roller skater from the Canberra Roller Derby League (CRDL). As with many good stories you come across, I found out about the CRDL via a conversation in the kitchen at work. I tossed around a couple of news angles. CRDL have a bout coming up; a new report released says the overall cost to the taxpayer to manage obesity is $5 billion a year. That’s $5 billion. What better way to get fit and stay lean that roller skating round a rink? Surely you’d be too terrified of being pushed to the ground to worry about whether you’ve burnt off enough calories?

I became intrigued about the punk-style, third wave feminism take on the 60s craze that is roller derby, with its alliterations to pop culture and the double entendre stage names that are used by its competitors. Is this a sport or is this sports entertainment? Do we have Jerry Springer type entertainment on our hands? The roller derby has taken off in the States again; with all-women, self managed leagues cropping up all over the place. And if attendance figures at the previous two bouts in Canberra are any indication, it will be taking Canberra by storm. So what has happened to nice quiet Canberra with its Brumby-loving football fans? I decided to delve into the world to find out, through an interviewer with Bullseye Betty, President of the CRDL.

Baby e-steps

This is practically my first blog ever.  I have become a blogger because I have to. Which is good. I think. In order to complete my Jounalism Major, I am required to create a 'reflective blog' as part of my assessment for the unit of Broadcast Journalism. And so I will reflect, and then reflect some more... Although, I must admit I am not comfortable with the idea of a cyber-diary, and I approach the e-journal world with a degree of trepidation. I mean, aren't diaries supposed to be hidden under the bed?

And the whole idea that you can protect your blogged privates is of little comfort. What happens if the internet is hacked by balaclava-clad nerds intent on exposing my thoughts to the world?  On second thoughts, I think I'll be okay if that's the worst that can happen. Why can't I possess the self-conceit of that Generation Y - happy to share their deepest, darkest thoughts and endless snapshots of drunken escapades with multiple 'friends' and strangers alike? I guess I'm self-aware enough to know that no-one really cares what I write because most people online are too busy with their own blogged, facebooked lives to care.

I always thought that blogs are for extroverts and the 'me, me, me generation' with their hallmark narcissistic tendencies - everyone should read about me because I am endlessly fascinating etc. Sure, I am on Facebook, replete with friends, some with origins unknown, but only because everyone else is.  I was starting to feel like I was being left behind at a random bus stop on a dark night in the middle of nowhere on the information superhighway.

What can I say, the e-pressure got the best of me, so I jumped on the band-width wagon. Now I have many friends, from the past and present, and am left wondering what the facebook generation will do when they realise that some people are meant to be left in the past. I suppose deleting them from a friends list is no different, and perhaps easier, than promising each other you'll catch up soon.

I'm done, until next time I reflect.....